Atrial fibrillation is a condition in the heart causing irregular heartbeats due to generation of abnormal electrical signals. Various treatment regimens may be followed for treating arrhythmias, such as anti-arrhythmic medications and catheter ablation.
Catheter ablation is a minimally invasive procedure that involves killing an abnormal muscle responsible for tissue dysfunction. This produces a small area of dead heart muscle called a lesion. In order to make lesions and thereby treat arrhythmia, abnormal heart muscles are first targeted and mapped, such as through a mapping technique. A catheter used for such purposes generally includes one or more mapping electrodes configured to carry out mapping functions and an ablation electrode configured to carry out the ablation function. Mapping typically involves percutaneously introducing the catheter having one or more mapping electrodes into the patient, passing the catheter through a blood vessel (e.g., the femoral vein or artery) and into an endocardial site (e.g., an atrium or ventricle of the heart) to map bioelectrical signals arising from the myocardial tissues and thereby, recognizing the tissue that is the source of the arrhythmia. The tip of the ablation catheter including the tip ablation electrode can then deliver energy to the abnormal heart muscle, which disables it.